Pages

Monday, 29 September 2014

Job 6 - Some friend you are

Job responds to Eliphaz. He starts off by saying how terrible his anguish is. He also clearly knows that it is God's will. The Old Testament attributes a lot more to God than we often do, we tend to make apologies for God, the Bible does no such thing.
In verse 8-10 we get the first cry that God would hear him. He wants God to take his life away. Note in verse 10 that his wish is that even in unrelenting pain he has not denied God. He still seems to be seeking to be righteous, but feels that he is coming to the end of what he can handle.
In verses 11-13 he makes it clear that his strength, both physical and moral, has gone. He has nothing left to offer.
Then Job indulges in a diatribe against his friends, about how useless they have been now that he is really in need. One has to ask what could they have done? But this is a very human reaction. When people are struggling they sometimes get upset with friends because the friends don't help them as they think they should. But the reason for this is that the friends don't know how to help you.
In v 24-30 it seems that what is hurting Job is the implication that he is suffering because of his sin. We know from the introduction that this is manifestly not the case. We can be too ready to attribute all suffering and failure to sin.

No comments:

Post a Comment